White House Blog: Fox Lies

September 30, 2009 — Ron Chusid

Reality Check

For years Fox has masqueraded as a news network while acting as the Republican Party’s own version of Pravda by spreading misinformation instead of reporting the news. When a Democrat has been in the White House they have concentrated on a constant stream of dishonest attacks. In contrast, when George Bush was president, they shifted away from such criticism and participated in spreading the lies coming from his administration.

The White House is no longer playing along with Fox’s pretense of being a fair and balanced news organization. Earlier in the month when Obama pulled off the “full Ginsburg” he substituted Univision for Fox when doing five interviews the same day. Now the White House is willing to use the L-word. Today The White House Blog posted a Reality Check which began by debunking some of the latest false claims made by Glenn Beck and one of his guests. They began:

Last night Fox News continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration’s efforts to win the Olympics for the United States. In the past, hosting the Olympics has been a source of pride and unity for the country, but once again Fox News’ Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings.
RHETORIC:          BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT “HAD THE OLYMPICS.” Glenn Beck said, “Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics.”  [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY:              VANCOUVER’S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010. Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively. [Vancouver2010.com, accessed 9/29/09]
RHETORIC:          VALERIE JARRETT “WAS LAST SEEN WITH THE NEA.” Beck’s guest, FOX News contributor Pat Caddell, said, “[Obama] is going to go [to Copenhagen] with Valerie Jarrett who was last seen with the NEA pumping up their use of, you know, money.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY:              VALERIE JARRETT WAS NOT ON THE NEA CONFERENCE CALL. Valerie Jarrett was not a participant in the August 10, 2009 United We Serve/NEA conference call.
Their fact checking is not limited to Glenn Beck. The item ends by referring readers to PolitiFact, “For even more Fox lies.”Yes, Glenn Beck and others at Fox frequently do lie, and this should be pointed out rather than pretending they are a real news organization.
Michael Scherer at Swampland, recognizing Fox’s reason for existing, predicts that the fight between Obama and Fox will continue.
This is just the latest public declaration in the barely-subsurface battle that has been going on for months between Fox News and the White House–which Fox is winning at least in terms of ratings. We are in new terrain here. The White House is using its official blog to go after a network. The network long ago demonstrated that its raison d’etre for the moment is organizing, chaneling and profiting from the opposition to basically anything the White House does.

Since both the White House and Fox are largely trying to rally different audiences, they can both benefit by keeping this fight going. In other words, there is a lot more “Calling ‘Em Out” to come.

At least it was a two way battle. For years Fox has engaged in misinformation campaigns with too little response from the other side.

Posted in Barack Obama, Blogs & Social Media, News Media. Tags: , , . 9 Comments »

Orchestrated Protests and Misinformation Against Health Insurance Reform

September 29, 2009 — Ron Chusid

Rolling Stone features a story on The Lie Machine which shows how the insurance industry and Republicans worked to spread misinformation, and get right wingers out protesting, in an attempt to block health care reform. From the story:

According to internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights had been working closely for weeks as a “coalition partner” with three other right-wing groups in a plot to unleash irate mobs at town-hall meetings just like Doggett’s. Far from representing a spontaneous upwelling of populist rage, the protests were tightly orchestrated from the top down by corporate-funded front groups as well as top lobbyists for the health care industry. Call it the return of the Karl Rove playbook: The effort to mobilize the angriest fringe of the Republican base was guided by a conservative dream team that included the same GOP henchmen who Swift-boated John Kerry in 2004, smeared John McCain in 2000, wrote the script for Republican obstructionism on global warming, and harpooned the health care reform effort led by Hillary Clinton in 1993.

“The insurance industry is up to the same dirty tricks, using the same devious PR practices it has used for many years, to kill reform,” says Wendell Potter, who stepped down last year as chief of corporate communications for health insurance giant CIGNA. “I’m certain that people showing up at these town halls feel that they’re there on their own — but they don’t realize they’re being incited, ultimately, by the insurance industry and the other special interests.”

Behind the scenes, top Republicans — including House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Minority Leader John Boehner and the chairman of the GOP’s Senate steering committee, Jim DeMint — worked hand-in-glove with the organizers of the town brawls. Their goal was not only to block health care reform but to bankrupt President Obama’s political capital before he could move on to other key items on his agenda, including curbing climate change and expanding labor rights. As DeMint told an August teleconference of nearly 20,000 town-hall activists, “If we can stop him on this, the administration won’t be able to go on to cap and trade, card check and the other things they want to do.”

Posted in Health Care. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . 11 Comments »

A Plea To Leave Our Current Insurance System Alone

September 29, 2009 — Ron Chusid

The system is only broke for tens of millions of people–why fix it?

Posted in Health Care, Humor and Satire. No Comments »

Delusional Right Wingers Compare Their Attempts To Restrict Reproductive Rights To Civil Rights Battles

September 29, 2009 — Ron Chusid

The Los Angeles Times looks at the latest strategy from the right wing to try to circumvent a Supreme Court decision and impose their views upon the country:

Abortion foes, tired of a profusion of laws that limit but do not abolish abortion, are trying to answer the question in a way that they hope could put an end to legalized abortion.

Across the country, they have revived efforts to amend state constitutions to declare that personhood — and all rights accorded human beings — begins at conception.

From Florida to California, abortion foes are gathering signatures, pressing state legislators and raising money to put personhood measures on ballots next year. In Louisiana, a class at a Catholic high school is lobbying state legislators as part of a civics exercise.

“We have big and small efforts going on in 30 states right now,” said Keith Mason, co-founder of Colorado-based Personhood USA. “Our goal is to activate the population.”

Critics deride the effort as the “egg-as-person” movement and say it threatens in vitro fertilization; some kinds of birth control, including IUDs and pills; and stem cell research. They say that Americans will reject it as a government intrusion into their privacy.

Yes, this is real government intrusion in individual’s lives–not the imagined abuses seen by many conservatives. The irony is that such measures are supported by many of the same people who are engaging in right wing protests based upon a delusional view of what Obama is doing, often expressing rhetorical but not real support for freedom

As Ted Miller, spokesman for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said, “It’s a backdoor abortion ban.” So far voters and state legislatures have rejected such efforts. Supporters see a comparison between their efforts and supporters of homosexual rights and even Martin Luther King’s struggle for civil rights. What they fail to recognize is that the general movement of history has been for greater liberty and their attempts to impose such reactionary views have little chance of success in the modern world which they so desperately fight. Despite a rare outlier poll which suggests greater opposition to abortion, the vast majority of Americans would not back such a ban and a return to the era of shirt hanger abortions. A poll from May showed that 68 percent oppose overturning Roe v. Wade with only 30 percent supporting this. By continuing to pursue this issue, the right wing continues to marginalize themselves. Continued opposition to reproductive rights will leave the Republicans as a minority regional party limited to the south and Mormon belt of the west.

Posted in Social Issues. Tags: , , , . 5 Comments »

RIP: Andy Williams’ Brain

September 29, 2009 — Ron Chusid

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Andy Williams has become senile, or perhaps just nuts, in his old age. The Telegraph reports:

Andy Williams, the veteran pop singer, has accused Barack Obama of “following Marxist theory” and “wanting the country to fail”.

Williams, a lifelong Republican whose hits include Moon River and Music To Watch Girls By, told the Radio Times he thought Mr Obama wanted to turn the US into a “socialist country”…

“Don’t like him at all,” he said, “I think he wants to create a socialist country. The people he associates with are very Left-wing. One is registered as a Communist.

“Obama is following Marxist theory. He’s taken over the banks and the car industry. He wants the country to fail.”

Aricept cannot cure this.

Posted in Barack Obama, Entertainment & Leisure. Tags: , . 1 Comment »

Read About Us On Twitter

September 28, 2009 — Ron Chusid

The importance of social media in the internet has increased tremendously the last couple of years. The last two blog stories include interaction between Facebook and bloggers to bring in the Secret Service and protest the continued presence of a poll on Facebook which advocated political violence. At one time links from other blogs was considered a major measure of the success of a blog, but today much of the traffic is generated from social media.

There are services such as Technorati and Google which track links from other blogs (despite problems with both). It is harder to similarly track and publicize links from social media. Facebook is especially difficult since much of Facebook consists of personal pages which are only available to one’s Facebook friends. The Sitemeter shows when someone comes to the blog from Facebook, but I often cannot tell if this is from someone clicking on a link to a blog post on my own Facebook page or from another Facebook user linking here. It is also questionable as to how to handle links from blog aggregators and some types of social media. While it is rare day  that there are not links to Liberal Values on such sites, often they consist only of links and nothing which is quotable.

Twitter provides a better opportunity for tracking and publicizing links from social media. Twitter is open, compared to Facebook comments often only being available to one’s friends. The brief comments from Twitter in response to a blog post are worth adding to a blog discussion.

I’m still experimenting with ways to incorporate posts on Twitter about blog posts here into the blog. In some cases but not others, comments on Twitter generate a trackback which I’ve already been posting. Over the weekend I’ve added a couple of other features. On the left sidebar I have added a RSS feed of the most recent comments fromTwitter which the feed picks up.

There is also an additional link following this feed which goes to a page at Twisty. This page gives a historical listing of comments about blog posts which appeared on Twitter, ranking by number of entries. The page also lists those who have commented on Liberal Values the most on Twitter. Showing the variety of topics discussed here, the highest number is from someone posting as healthreformusa. Next on the list is drwhonews. Others in the list is film maker and Huffington Post blogger Lee Stranahan and writer Martin Bosworth, who also blogs at Huffington Post.

I’m just beginning to look into integrating material from Twitter. While there might turn out to be other sites I am not yet aware of, Twisty does look like a useful site. The link in the sidebar does seem to give the most information, but I also found that I receive a different list if I do a search simply for “liberalvaluesblog.” While I haven’t linked to this search on the sidebar I cannot resist adding a link here because the first entry about Liberal Values is a simple comment saying, “This guy is good.” How can I question whether Twitter provides comments which are of value?

Posted in Blogs & Social Media. Tags: , . 4 Comments »

Threatening Facebook Poll Now Covered By Media

September 28, 2009 — Ron Chusid

The Facebook poll I mentioned earlier which asked, “should Obama be killed?” is now being covered by the mainstream media. AP reports:

The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents are taking no chances.

“We are aware of it and we will take the appropriate investigative steps,” said Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman. “We take of these things seriously.”

Of course those of us following this on Facebook and the blogs know that Facebook was  slow to remove the poll despite numerous complaints about it.  Most likely the poll was put up by a harmless nut, but the Secret Service is right to take it seriously pending an investigation. Nuts are not always harmless.

Posted in Barack Obama, Blogs & Social Media, News Media. Tags: . 1 Comment »

Facebook Poll: “Should Obama Be Killed?”

September 28, 2009 — Ron Chusid

obamafacebookpoll-cropped-proto-custom_2

The big controversy on Facebook this morning was over the above poll which asked “should Obama be killed?” There were conflicting reports as to whether it was posted last night or earlier in the weekend, with many on Facebook questioning why it wasn’t taken down. Some have commented that people such as Glenn Beck have created the atmosphere which has led to such polls being posted while others noted that right wing polls have frequently been posted on Facebook, such as one questioning the existence of the Holocaust.

Many people have reported complaining about the poll to Facebook, along with reporting this to the Secret Service and the Cybercrimes division of the FBI. The poll was ultimately taken down around 1:00 E.S.T. The entire issue went down the memory hole on Facebook as comments linking to the poll were also removed. This morning other polls went up regarding people’s opinions of the poll and what should be done to the person who posted the original poll. These are also going down the memory hole with the one I posted on my Facebook page (along with subsequent discussion) also disappearing.

While much of the discussion of the issue has disappeared from Facebook with the removal of these polls, it has attracted attention in the blogosphere. The first mention I have seen of this was in this diary at Daily Kos.

Update: Greg Sargent has more:

The Secret Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding an eye-opening Facebook poll that asked whether Obama should be assassinated, a Secret Service spokesman confirms to us.

“We are taking the appropriate investigative steps,” the spokesman, Ed Donovan, told our reporter, Amanda Erickson. “We are aware of it.”

The poll asked: “Should Obama be killed?” It offered four choices: No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.

The poll, of course, is only the latest example of the sort of viral incitement to violence that flares up when the sparks of anti-Obama hatred are fed oxygen by the bellows of the Internets. While anyone can put up such a poll, this kind of stuff is a sign of the moment — as David Kurtz put it, it’s akin to graffiti on the virtual wall of our times.

According to a source, the Secret Service has contacted Facebook and asked them to take the poll down. And, indeed, it’s already down.

Update II: The mainstream media is now covering the story.

Update III: A poll regarding how Facebook should respond to this problem is now back up. I had linked to it earlier and the link vanished, but has now returned.

Posted in Barack Obama, Blogs & Social Media. Tags: , , , . 5 Comments »

NY Daily News Reports Claims That Elizabeth Edwards Bashed Rielle Hunter in Annonymous Blog Comments and Made John Sleep In Their Barn

September 27, 2009 — Ron Chusid

relie-hunter

The New York Daily News has a number of claims about the John Edwards/ Rielle Hunter affair, including a claim that Elizabeth Edwards has been bashing Rielle Hunter in blog comments, writing under a pseudonym. The article also cites other claims from the proposal for Edwards aide Andrew Young’s book, including that Elizabeth has been talking to a divorce lawyer and that John Edwards and Rielle Hunter have made a sex tape. Additional claims include:

  • Edwards had had affairs with other women on the campaign trail.
  • When Edwards was forced to call off a birthday date with Hunter because he found out that Elizabeth’s cancer had returned, an unsympathetic Hunter screamed at him.
  • After learning of the affair, Elizabeth made John sleep in their barn though she would wake him up with accusatory rants.
  • Hunter relied on a California psychic named Bob to tell her where to live and what to do.
  • Edwards had little affection for John Kerry – once comparing him to Richie Rich – but changed his tune when the Democratic presidential nominee tapped him as his running mate.
  • Ted Kennedy once told Young about a would-be assassin who managed to get into his Senate office because one of his bodyguards was having a gay liaison with one of his top aides.

With regards to the item on Kerry, it has been clear since the 2004 election that John Kerry does not think much of John Edwards.

Posted in Blogs & Social Media, John Edwards, John Kerry, Scandals. Tags: , , . 10 Comments »

SciFi Weekend: Flash Forward; Lost; V; Dexter; and More Kristen Bell Bikini Pictures

September 27, 2009 — Ron Chusid

flashforward_090924

In what was generally a very disappointing week of premiers for new shows, there was one excellent pilot. FlashForward was by far the best pilot I saw.  While the concept is taken from Robert Sawyer’s novel, the actual storyline is entirely new. One significant difference from the concept of the novel is that rather than having everyone on earth flash forward to years in the future, the flash forward in this show takes place to April 29, 2010 at 10pm Pacific Time. This leads to a different type of story, presumably dealing far more with the daily lives of the individuals  involved.

Among the characters whose lives might be changed by seeing six months into the future, Sonya Walger plays Olivia, a doctor and a wife who seems far more likable than the bitchy wife she played on HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me. In Walger’s flash forward she sees that she is intimately involved with a man who is not her current husband. At the end of the first episode is is obvious she will meet the man very soon as she is the father of a child she was treating (and who knew her name, presumably from the child’s  own flash forward).

FlashForwardOceanicBillboard-thumb-550x389-24768

The presence of Sonya Walger, who also plays Penelope Widmore on Lost, isn’t the only comparison between FlashForward and Lost.  The chaos in the scene after everyone lost consciousness is reminiscent of the chaos after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 in the pilot of Lost.  While the above screen capture isn’t clear enough to see the details, one scene showed a billboard for Oceanic Airlines in the background which noted their safety record. Is this show taking place in an alternative timeline where the bomb at the end of last year’s final episode of Lost was successful in changing history and the crash did not occur? It created a big enough mystery at the end to see the one person awake in the video from a stadium in Detroit when everyone else was blacked out. Was this person from the Dharma Initiative?

A big question for shows of this nature is whether the producers know where it is going. Too many shows, such as The X-Files, started out by creating a mystery but lacking a clear direction the mythology of the show became confusing and the conclusion was not satisfying. It appears that the producers of FlashForward do have ideas as to an explanation for the events, and hope the show lasts at least three years as it would take two years to do the conclusion as they intend. Marc Guggenheim, one of the producers, said in an interview with SFX magazine (via Io9):

We know what the ultimate season is and the penultimate season is. For in between, we know the various seasons but we are treating it like an accordion. In success, [the show] can go seven years. In less success, it would need to go three years to work. The end game of the show, to be properly done, really requires two full seasons focusing on the end game.

The pilot also included a commercial for the other eagerly awaited science fiction show of the year–the remake of V.  A promo for the show appears above. There have been rumors of production problems with the show for a while, and now Variety reports that they are going to divide the series. The show will go on hiatus after the first four episodes, saving the final nine for later, probably resuming in mid-March. There are claims that this is to avoid competition from American Idol and the Olympics but it would seem like a show has a better chance to succeed without such a hiatus.

dexter_season4

Dexter resumes tonight but, as with previous seasons, the first episode of the season has been available on line. I assume they intentionally leak out the first episode every year to create buzz for the show, but I wonder why they don’t simply air the show on demand as opposed to encouraging such down loading. I won’t say anything to spoil tonight’s episode, but it does deal with the complications for Dexter from having a wife and baby. The episodes also ends with a mini-cliff hanger which gets to the question as to whether it is safe for Dexter to pursue his activities.

27dexter-600

Dexter’s adversary for the season is The Trinity Killer, played by John Lithgow. The New York Times interviewed both John Lithgow and Michael C. Hall:

Q. John, what was your reaction when you were approached to portray a madman who kills in multiples of three?

MR. LITHGOW I felt like, “Oh, yeah. I know how to play this.” The fascination — which is the fascination of the whole series — is: How can a person outwardly so ordinary, almost bland, have such a baroque and bizarre secret life? I’m usually hired for my blandness. [He laughs.] I love the idea of shocking people. I thought it was high time I did that again.

Q. Here’s your essay question: Compare and contrast your individual serial killer characters.

MR. HALL Well, they’re obviously both saddled with a compulsion. They’re different seeds from very different trees. For Dexter’s part, I think it’s an awareness that Trinity does what he does, and it makes him compelling the way no one has ever been to him — other than perhaps his brother.

kristen-bell-bikini-2-01

With Couple’s Retreat coming out on October 9, the internet is being flooded with pictures of Kristen Bell and Kristin Davis in bikinis and lingerie. While not a bad way to end the summer, this is a waste of Kristen Bell’s talent as seen in Veronica Mars.

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Posted in Science Fiction, Television. Tags: , , , , , , . 8 Comments »

West Michigan Woman Threatened With Fines For Watching Neighbors’ Kids

September 27, 2009 — Ron Chusid

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It might take a village to raise kids, but in Michigan this attitude can get you in legal trouble:

A West Michigan woman says the state is threatening her with fines and possibly jail time for babysitting her neighbors’ children.

Lisa Snyder of Middleville says her neighborhood school bus stop is right in front of her home. It arrives after her neighbors need to be at work, so she watches three of their children for 15-40 minutes until the bus comes.

The Department of Human Services received a complaint that Snyder was operating an illegal child care home. DHS contacted Snyder and told her to get licensed, stop watching her neighbors’ kids, or face the consequences.

“It’s ridiculous.” says Snyder. “We are friends helping friends!” She added that she accepts no money for babysitting.

Mindy Rose, who leaves her 5-year-old with Snyder, agrees. “She’s a friend… I trust her.”

State Representative Brian Calley is drafting legislation that would exempt people who agree to care for non-dependent children from daycare rules as long as they’re not engaged in a business.

“We have babysitting police running around this state violating people, threatening to put them in jail or fine them $1,000 for helping their neighbor (that) is truly outrageous” says Rep. Calley.

A DHS spokesperson would not comment on the specifics of the case but says they have no choice but to comply with state law, which is designed to protect Michigan children.

Can we pass a new law which says that stupid laws should not be enforced? I also wonder who filed the complaint. They were hardly being a good neighbor.

Posted in Michigan News. Tags: . 10 Comments »

Bill Clinton Explains Why He Now Supports Same Sex Marriage

September 26, 2009 — Ron Chusid

Andrew Sullivan has the transcript of an interview between Anderson Cooper and Bill Clinton explains why he now supports marriage equality:

AC: You said you recently changed your mind on same-sex marriage. I’m wondering what you mean by that. Do you now believe that gay people should have full rights to civil marriage nationwide?

Clinton: I do. I think that, well let me get back to the last point, the last word. I believe historically, for two hundred and something years, marriage has been a question left to the states and the religious institutions. I still think that’s where it belongs. That is, I was against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage nationwide, and I still think that the American people should be able to play this side in debates. But me, Bill Clinton personally, I changed my position. I am no longer opposed to that. I think if people want to make commitments that last a lifetime, they ought to be able to do it. I have long favored the right of gay couples to adopt children.

AC: What made you change your mind? Was there one thing?

Clinton: I think, what made me change my mind, I looked up and said look at all of this stuff you’re for. I’ve always believed that—I’ve never supported all the moves of a few years ago to ban gay couples from adoption. Because they’re all these kids out there looking for a home. And the standard on all adoption cases is, what is the best interest of the child? And there are plenty of cases where the best interest of the child is to let the gay couple take them and give them a loving home. So I said, you know, I realized that I was over 60 years old, I grew up at a different time, and I was hung up about the word. I had all these gay friends, I had all these gay couple friends, and I was hung up about it. And I decided I was wrong.

That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it, and I don’t think a state should be able to stop a religious body from saying it, I don’t think the rest of us should get in the way of it.  I think it’s a good thing not a bad thing. And I just realized that, I was, probably for, maybe just because of my age and the way I’ve grown up, I was wrong about that. I just had too many gay friends. I saw their relationships. I just decided I couldn’t, I had an untenable position.

It is good to see he accepts same sex marriage to this degree but he still seems to leave it up to the states, writing “if a state agrees.” From a legal point of view this makes sense as this is a state matter. However, if talking about the principle of marriage equality I would push for it nation wide and object to any states continuing such discrimination.

Posted in Bill Clinton, Democrats, Social Issues. Tags: , . 12 Comments »

False Conservative Claims Regarding Czars Appointed by Obama

September 26, 2009 — Ron Chusid

Conservatives have been making a lot of noise about czars recently as a threat to the Constitution. The first clue that their argument is based upon a number of factual errors is that, as Factcheck.org points out, this charge is being led by the idiotic and irresponsible Fox anchor Glenn Beck:

There’s been a certain fascination with calling Obama’s advisers and appointees “czars.” Fox News host Glenn Beck has identified 32 Obama czars on his Web site, whom he has characterized as a collective “iceberg” threatening to capsize the Constitution. Beck and other television hosts aren’t the only ones crying czar, either. Six Republican senators recently sent a letter to the White House saying that the creation of czar posts “circumvents the constitutionally established process of ‘advise and consent.’ ” Republican Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah issued a press release saying that czars “undermine the constitution.” And Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison wrote an opinion column in the Washington Post complaining about the czar menace, including the factually inaccurate claim that only “a few of them have formal titles.”

While Beck claims that Obama has appointed 32 czars, Factcheck shows that the number is actually only eight:

  • Nine were confirmed by the Senate, including the director of national intelligence (“intelligence czar“), the chief performance officer (“government performance czar“) and the deputy interior secretary (“California water czar“).
  • Eight more were not appointed by the president – the special advisor to the EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan (“Great Lakes czar“) is EPA-appointed, for instance, and the assistant secretary for international affairs and special representative for border affairs (“border czar“) is appointed by the secretary of homeland security.
  • Fifteen of the “czarships” Beck lists, including seven that are in neither of the above categories, were created by previous administrations. (In some cases, as with the “economic czar,” the actual title – in this case, chairman of the president’s economic recovery advisory board – is new, but there has been an official overseeing the area in past administrations. In others, as with the special envoy to Sudan, the position is old but the “czar” appellation is new.)
  • In all, of the 32 positions in Beck’s list, only eight are Obama-appointed, unconfirmed, brand new czars.

I’ve previously noted that many right wingers who are engaged in a smear campaign against Cass Sunstein, including Glenn Beck, are falsely claiming he is a czar despite the fact that he requires Senate confirmation for his position.

The actual czars are generally in positions where there is no permanent post which is subject to Senate confirmation. Often czars deal with managing new areas of interest for a current administration, holding positions which are often temporary and which did not exist in the past.

Putting this number in perspective Factcheck notes that the Democratic National Committee counts 47 czars appointed by George W. Bush. Factcheck also disagrees with the characterization of some of them as czars and reduces the number to 35. This included the “faith-based czar“ and the “cybersecurity czar.” Once again, the right wing has suddenly discovered a problem under Barack Obama which they were never concerned about under Republican administrations.

Posted in Barack Obama, George Bush, Republicans. Tags: , , , . 5 Comments »

Best Public Service Announcement Ever: Save the Boobs

September 25, 2009 — Ron Chusid

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, leading to a number of public service announcements, such as the one above, which should attract plenty of attention. Below is a video on the making of the above video. (Hat tip to Ann Althouse, who loves to talk about breasts, and is the only political blogger I know of who has a separate category for breasts.)

Posted in Health Care. No Comments »

Terrorist Plot Stopped (Without Waterboarding)

September 25, 2009 — Ron Chusid

Many Republicans, who are unable to distinguish between an episode of 24 and reality, have been predicting that Obama’s policies would lead to another terrorist attack. They not only fail to understand that torture is a poor way to stop terrorism but also believe that it is necessary.  What could have been a significant terrorist threat has been stopped by using conventional law enforcement and intelligence:

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, senior government officials have announced dozens of terrorism cases that on closer examination seemed to diminish as legitimate threats. The accumulating evidence against a Denver airport shuttle driver suggests he may be different, with some investigators calling his case the most serious in years.

Documents filed in Brooklyn against the driver, Najibullah Zazi, contend he bought chemicals needed to build a bomb — hydrogen peroxide, acetone and hydrochloric acid — and in doing so, Mr. Zazi took a critical step made by few other terrorism suspects…

If government allegations are to be believed, Mr. Zazi, a legal immigrant from Afghanistan, had carefully prepared for a terrorist attack. He attended a Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, received training in explosives and stored in his laptop computer nine pages of instructions for making bombs from the same kind of chemicals he had bought.

While many important facts remain unknown, those allegations alone would distinguish Mr. Zazi from nearly all the other defendants in United States terrorism cases in recent years. More often than not the earlier suspects emerged as angry young men, inflamed by the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden or his associates. Some were serious in intent. More than a few seemed to be malcontents without the organization, technical skills and financing to be much of a threat. In some cases, the subjects appeared to be influenced by informants or undercover agents who pledged to provide the weapons or even do some of the planning.

In two cases unrelated to Mr. Zazi in which charges were announced on Thursday, in fact, the subjects dealt extensively with undercover agents.

The Zazi case “actually looks like the case the government kept claiming it had but never did,” said Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University law school.

It is far to early to tell what their overall record will be, but so far the government has been successful in stopping terrorism under Obama. We know what Bush’s record was at this point in his administration. The United States suffered the attacks of 9/11, with George Bush having ignored warnings from both the Clinton administration and his own intelligence agencies. Besides demonstrating extreme incompetence in ignoring the warnings, the Bush administration proceeded to play partisan politics with national security. If we really want to look at the track records of the two parties, not only does Obama have a better record than Bush, but so did Clinton, who was successful in stopping the planned millennium terrorist plots.

Posted in Barack Obama, George Bush, Terrorism. Tags: , , , , , , . 1 Comment »
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